belevitt1

I thought I might pitch in to the venting about how recent college graduates are not yet mature adults and tell a story about a guy I interviewed with. On the final night of the interview weekend for my current program, the graduate students took us out to bars around town. This fella drank heavily, beyond what you might expect anybody to drink in an unfamiliar city. Upon returning to the hotel, he went from door to door (at 3 am) knocking to see if there were interviewees in that room. I can only imagine how intimidating it was for the non interviewee guests of the hotel to have an intoxicated guy slamming his hands on their door and slurring his words at them. The city police were called and found him curled up on the hallway carpet, after having vomited. The police called the director of the graduate program to pick him up. The director took him to the airport, despite the fact that his flight wasn't for many hours and told him that he would have his luggage shipped to him. I don't think this guy was offered a spot in my cohort.

For God's sake, you're a twenty something year old adult with the mental capacity to get into graduate school, why in the world do you not have facebook. Joking aside, this is a nervewracking experience and it only begins with the orientation. Be prepared for "imposter syndrome" (google it) to kick in somewhere around three weeks into the mandatory courses you take with your cohort. This is around when you discover that everybody else in your cohort knows about a subject you haven't even heard of. There will be weekly events, department seminars and whatnot, where you will be expected to show up and make small talk with people whose names you cannot seem to remember. Keep a positive mental outlook and remind yourself often of why you wanted to go to grad school and what you hope to get out of the process. You'll be alright.

I am embarrassed to say this, being as skeptical as I am of landlords, but I have never thought twice about paying a security deposit before signing the actual lease. You are on firm footing if you had to get your money back in small claims court, and unlike contractors, landlords are stuck in one place and have property that could be seized if they don't show up. If it makes you uncomfortable, you may have to work with the landlord to get a copy of the contract ahead of time. Otherwise, you could do what many other people do and trust that the landlord isn't going to screw you over.

If I were you, I wouldn't dream of stopping my education with 230K in student debt and attempt to make it on the kinds of salaries an entry level job with a bachelors degree will get you. Unless you have some sort of crazy ambition or expect to have an extraordinarily high income, you will pay what you can on your loans when you are done. There are any number of extended payment plans to accommodate people with tons of debt. Don't worry, you aren't the only person with that kind of debt, my wife regularly advised students with that level (at a proprietary art and design school). I had a close friend who went to a private university and incurred around that level of debt as well, he lives a normal life and moved to a high cost of living area to work a dream job.

Are you serious?!?! I spend more time with my pets than many people with their spouses. I don't understand the concern you have about time commitment. I put in around 60 hours a week between lab, courses, seminars and other things. This leaves most of the rest of my time free. Furthermore, as a first year student rotating, nobody really expects that you will put in many weekends and courses are a bit of a joke. Keep the cat.